President Donald Trump has invoked the Defense Production Act to force defense companies to manufacture more weapons after the war with Iran depleted stockpiles, CNN report disclosed.
In a document signed last week, the president says that he finds “that conditions exist which may pose a direct threat to the national defense or its preparedness programs.”
“In particular, systemic constraints in the munitions industrial base, including limited production capacity, fragile supply chains, long-lead dependencies, and related production bottlenecks, may impair the ability of the United States to produce, sustain, and expand the availability of munitions, missiles, and equipment required for the national defense,” the document, sent to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, says.
It’s a significant move for the president to compel private companies to increase production and suggests a substantial level of concern in the Trump administration about the Pentagon’s weapons stockpiles following the war with Iran as well as the conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine which saw the US contribute weapons to Israel and Ukraine.
The Pentagon has long had concerns about the defense industry’s ability to produce weapons quickly enough. Those concerns were only exacerbated by the US’ war with Iran, in which the US used up significant portions of key missile stockpiles, experts and officials have told CNN.
On Wednesday, Trump said that the last two days of the war were “brutal” and that “$200 million worth of bombs” were used.
“It is expensive too, by the way, aside from everything else,” Trump said, speaking from the G7 summit in France.